Daily Kickoff
Good Monday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we spotlight Trump transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick and talk to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) about his appeal to Pittsburgh voters as a Harris campaign surrogate. We spotlight the race in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District between Rep. John James (R-MI)and Carl Marlinga and talk to Chicago Jewish leaders about the hate crime charges filed against a Mauritanian national who shot a Jewish man in Chicago. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Marc Benioff, Hugh Hewitt and Emmanuelle Chriqui.
What We’re Watching
- Former President Donald Trump will appear today in Raleigh, N.C., Reading and Pittsburgh, Pa. Trump will hold his final campaign rally today in Grand Rapids, Mich. He previously held his final rallies of the 2016 and 2020 election cycles in the city.
- Vice President Kamala Harris will spend her last day of campaigning before the presidential election in Pennsylvania, starting in Scranton and then Allentown. Alongside her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Harris will also attend events in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
- Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, under fire for a string of antisemitic and anti-Israel comments, said he’ll be hosting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on his show today. Sanders’ office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
- Writer Bernard-Henri Lévy will kick off his U.S. campus tour tonight at the University of California, Los Angeles.
What You Should Know
One worthwhile trick of the political trade is to spend a little less time dwelling on the often-contradictory polling, and spend more time focusing on what the candidates are actually doing as a sign of where the presidential race is headed, Jewish Insider Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar writes.
In the campaign’s closing week, former President Donald Trump: 1) spent time in non-battleground states like New Mexico and Virginia; 2) held a morale-boosting but politically damaging Madison Square Garden rally featuring the worst MAGA excesses, where one comic called Puerto Rico “garbage”; 3) sat down with Tucker Carlson and used violent rhetoric to attack former Rep. Liz Cheney’s support for a hawkish foreign policy; 4) saw his transition team leader endorse some of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s debunked anti-vaccine views; 5) and saw RFK Jr., one of his leading surrogates and a potential health advisor, pledge to remove fluoride from drinking water.
It doesn’t take a political expert, even one who has seen Trump survive many a political firestorm, to conclude the former president isn’t closing effectively in the campaign’s final days.
“Keeping voters’ attention on [Vice President Kamala] Harris — while, to the extent they could, keeping Trump out of his own way — had produced the most significant movement in his direction since her entry into the race,” The Atlantic wrote this weekend on the Trump operation’s playbook. But that spurt of discipline — combined with a number of lackluster Harris interviews with journalists — has now been overshadowed by Trump’s last-minute self-inflicted blunders.
And even as the Harris campaign had to deal with the political headache of cleaning up President Joe Biden’s claim that Trump supporters were “garbage” — in response to the comedian’s offensive Puerto Rico barb — the vice president has generally been disciplined, on message and focused on winning over the remaining swath of undecided voters in a very close race.
Just as polls showed momentum with Trump for much of October, the final wave of polling is showing Harris turning her fortunes around. In the new New York Times/Siena surveys of the seven battleground states released on Sunday, Harris is closing strong with the late-deciding voters who made up their mind in the last few days — by a whopping 16-point margin (58-42%). Interestingly, the polls showed Harris dominating with Sun Belt voters deciding late, but Trump has done better with last-minute deciders in the Midwestern battlegrounds.
That discrepancy has added a layer of uncertainty in the seven battleground states. Harris had been a bit behind in the Sun Belt states, according to the polling averages, but the new NYT/Siena polls show her leading in three of the four states (Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina). Trump also spent his Saturday making four stops in North Carolina, a clear sign that the GOP-friendly battleground isn’t yet locked down for the campaign.
At the same time, the northern “blue wall” states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — that looked like must-wins for Harris remain very close, according to the new polling. Adding to the confusion was the Saturday night release of an Iowa poll, conducted by one of the most respected pollsters in the business (Ann Selzer), that showed Harris leading 47% to 44% in a state that’s been comfortably Republican for the last two elections. The poll showed Harris dominating with white college-educated voters, particularly women.
The NYT/Siena polls also show Harris shoring up her lackluster support with Hispanic and Black voters — one of her most surprising weak spots. Harris now leads Black voters in the seven battlegrounds, 84-11%, and leading Hispanic voters, 56-35%. Harris’ showing with these core Democratic constituencies are improved from the previous round of polling, and get Harris close to Biden’s 2020 performance.
The big question to look at closely as election results come in is whether Trump’s incremental gains with nonwhite working-class voters will be more significant than what could be a Harris landslide with college-educated voters, especially women.
That’s the larger trend in our politics — an electorate deeply divided along gender and educational lines, even as it’s becoming less polarized along racial lines.
top booster
Howard Lutnick, the pro-Israel champion leading Trump’s transition team
Howard Lutnick, the billionaire hedge fund executive, has recently emerged as one of former President Donald Trump’s top boosters and closest advisers. He has helped corral support among Wall Street donors, appeared frequently on cable news to promote the campaign and earned a leading role on the transition team, where as co-chair he has been tasked with overseeing personnel for a potential second Trump administration, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
Motivating force: Lutnick, the chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, kept a lower profile before the election. But the 63-year-old Jewish Republican has indicated that his long-standing commitment to Israel is among the top reasons he is now actively aligning with Trump, particularly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Lutnick has said his decision to become more engaged in Trump’s reelection crystallized for him in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
exclusive
Torres heads to Pittsburgh’s Jewish community to make closing argument for Harris
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Harris campaign Jewish liaison Ilan Goldenberg traveled to Pittsburgh on Sunday to make a closing pitch to Jewish voters in the critical swing state ahead of Tuesday’s election. A source familiar with the event said it was geared, in part, at reassuring Jewish voters in Pittsburgh who’ve been frustrated by anti-Israel rhetoric from Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) and to reiterate that Vice President Kamala Harris does not share Lee’s positions on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
Torres statement: “I joined the Harris campaign in showing solidarity with the Pittsburgh Jewish community, which has been profoundly shaken by both the Tree of Life mass shooting and the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism,” Torres said in a statement to JI. “I did my best to reassure the Jewish community that the Democratic Party — despite the background noise on Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok — has been and will remain fundamentally pro-Israel and that the Vice President herself falls squarely within the pro-Israel consensus that has historically governed American politics, rejecting both the AntiZionism of the far left and the America-first isolationism of the far right.”
michigan match
Trump, Republicans court Arab -American voters in the final stretch of the campaign
Throughout this election cycle, Michigan, with its sizable Jewish and Arab American populations, has highlighted a delicate situation that candidates from both parties have found themselves in amid Israel’s war against Hezbollah and Hamas, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. Both Democrats and Republicans are trying to appeal to the pro-Israel community and to Arab and Muslim voters who, in some cases, have expressed hostility toward Israel, with vote margins in each community potentially helping to decide the outcome of the election, especially in Michigan, where both the presidential and Senate races are expected to be close.
Two-front battle: Appealing to Arab American voters who may be anti-Israel is something of a departure for Republicans, who have long characterized themselves as stalwart backers of the Jewish state, contrasting themselves with a Democratic Party that includes an outspoken faction of far-left, anti-Israel voices. Now, as the GOP tries to exploit Democratic weaknesses among Arab Americans, they also have to reassure pro-Israel conservatives they’re not compromising on policy.
podcast playback
Podcasts feature preelection debates over which presidential candidate is better for Jews
As the election season nears the finish line, leading Jewish political voices from across the political spectrum are sparring with one another – often on podcasts – about which presidential candidate will better serve the interests of the American Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs’s reports.
On air: “Unholy: Two Jews on the News,” a podcast hosted by Israeli news anchor Yonit Levi and British journalist Jonathan Freedland, dubbed the dilemma as “the great Jewish debate” over who — former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris — is actually “good for the Jews, to put it bluntly.” The program’s Tuesday episode featured Dan Senor, host of the “Call Me Back” podcast and a foreign policy advisor to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, arguing for the Republicans, and Jeremy Bash, who was chief of staff at the CIA during the Obama administration, representing Democrats. Bari Weiss’ “Honestly” podcast featured a similar debate over whether the Democratic or Republican Party would better serve the Jewish community. Popular conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro represented Republicans, while neuroscientist and best-selling author Sam Harris represented Democrats.
explainer
Snapback sanctions on the table as Iran threatens to go nuclear
Snapback sanctions, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal’s fail-safe mechanism, may be back on the West’s agenda after recent threats and aggression by the Islamic Republic. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy is prepared to trigger snapback sanctions as Iran gets closer to nuclear breakout, The Telegraph reported over the weekend, citing a Foreign Office official who said that London is “committed to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons using every diplomatic tool available, including the snapback mechanism if necessary.” The report comes in the immediate aftermath of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s top foreign policy advisor, Kamal Kharrazi, saying that Tehran has “the technical capabilities necessary to produce nuclear weapons” and would do so if facing an existential threat, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.
Background: Deployment of the snapback mechanism means that the sanctions regime of the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would revert to its original state. The JCPOA included “sunset clauses,” by which sanctions on Iran would gradually expire; all sanctions would return if snapback is invoked. Snapback sanctions can be implemented in response to Iran violating the JCPOA, which it has been doing since 2020, when it began enriching uranium to over 3.67%, stockpiling over 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium and blocking International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors’ visits, among other violations. The E3 invoked the JCPOA dispute mechanism, the first step towards triggering snapback sanctions, in 2020, but did not complete the process at the U.N. Security Council.
chicago shooting
Jewish leaders in Chicago applaud charges of terrorism, hate crimes against antisemitic shooter
Jewish leaders in Chicago felt a “sense of relief” on Thursday when the local prosecutor upgraded the charges against a Mauritian man, who crossed into the U.S. illegally, who shot a Jewish man walking to synagogue to include both hate crime and terrorism charges. But the move has raised questions among Jewish security officials about whether the immigration status of the suspect, 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, should raise larger concerns — namely, whether Chicago’s status as a “sanctuary city” could lead to growing risk for the city’s Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Heightened threat: “If there are indications that people are crossing the border and pose a threat to the Jewish community, that is of course deeply concerning,” Richard Priem, interim CEO of the Community Security Service, a Jewish community-based security organization that trains volunteers around the country, told JI. “What this means for us is that the heightened threat of violence that we have been operating in since Oct. 7 just got another example of what this means — that people can be attacked going to synagogue.”
Worthy Reads
Fragile Fighting Force: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius reports from Beirut on his conversations with Lebanese military and political figures about their vision for the country’s future. “Is the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] ready to take control of southern Lebanon and implement the Biden administration’s plan for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah? Under the U.S. proposal to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, Lebanese troops would secure the border area and prevent the Iranian-backed militia from operating there. The commander turns to a green-bereted sergeant named Walid, who steps forward, stamps his feet and gives a snappy salute. ‘Of course we can protect the country!’ he shouts. A Lebanese general pulls me aside. ‘As long as we work together, and no foreign country intervenes against us, we can succeed.’ … I asked a well-informed American in Beirut last week what the United States would do if a Lebanese advocate of a cease-fire with Israel were assassinated or a car bomb exploded. I didn’t get a clear answer, but U.S. officials need to be sure this time that Lebanon is building on solid foundations rather than quicksand, and that the United States and its allies are committed to standing with them through what will be a long process. The Lebanese army is the cornerstone for the American cease-fire plan, but it’s a fragile one.” [WashPost]
Poison Pens: The Wall Street Journal’s Adam Kirsch reflects on an open letter circulating in the literary world that calls for a boycott of Israel and has garnered more than 1,000 signatories. “The most ironic thing about the literary boycott of Israel, however, is that it betrays a lack of faith in literature itself. In the past, when Western writers were critical of a country or a regime, they were all the more committed to getting their work published there, believing that it could actually change things for the better. In the 1940s, George Orwell worked with Ukrainian and Russian dissidents to smuggle translations of his anticommunist novels past the Iron Curtain. Israel is a free country with a free press. To have their work published there, all that today’s writers have to do is not engage in a boycott. If their work has things to say about justice and humanity that they believe Israelis don’t understand, wouldn’t it make sense to insist on publishing in Hebrew? Instead, the boycotters have fallen victim to our era’s mania for ideological purity — the profoundly unliterary idea that disagreement is a reason to reject dialogue, rather than the best reason to begin it.” [WSJ]
Profs’ Power:The New York Times’ Alan Blinder explores the shifting distribution of power on college campuses. “For more than a century, professors have regularly had vast influence over instruction, personnel and other hallmarks of campus life, sharing sway with presidents and trustees in decisions shaping many parts of campus life — an authority that is unfathomable in many workplaces. But this year has shown how fraught and fragile that practice, known as shared governance, has become at public and private universities alike … A coast-to-coast wipeout of faculty influence is not imminent, despite years of swelling suspicions of higher education and repeated attacks on tenure protections. But in recent months, professors have warned of an erosion of their power that they fear could undermine university culture. Some see efforts to diminish shared governance as part of a campaign to curb faculty participation in events, like campus protests over the war in Gaza, that have left universities vulnerable to criticism.” [NYTimes]
Word on the Street
Las Vegas Review Journal owner Dr. Miriam Adelson endorsed former President Donald Trump in an editorial in the paper, while former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley also gave the former president her backing, saying, “I don’t agree with Mr. Trump 100% of the time. But I do agree with him most of the time, and I disagree with [Vice President Kamala] Harris nearly all the time. That makes this an easy call”…
Speaking in Milwaukee over the weekend, former President Barack Obama made an appeal to Muslim and Jewish voters, two demographics that the Trump campaign is attempting to win over ahead of tomorrow’s elections: “Maybe you’re Muslim-American or Jewish-American and you are heartbroken and furious about the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East and worried about the rise of antisemitism,” Obama said. “Why would you place your faith in somebody who instituted a so-called Muslim ban? Who sat down for pleasantries with Holocaust deniers, who said that there were very fine people on both sides of a white supremacist rally?”…
At a rally at Michigan State University on Sunday, Harris began her speech by addressing Israel’s ongoing wars against Iranian proxies, as well as calling for the release of the remaining 101 hostages: “This year has been difficult given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza, and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. It is devastating, and as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza”…
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) declined to endorse Harris in a speech to UAW workers in which she encouraged voting in down-ballot elections…
Tech entrepreneur Mark Pincus, who had previously been a donor to Democratic candidates and causes, announced his support for Trump, saying that he believes “America and Israel will be stronger under Trump”…
The White House is pressing Israel to hit a series of benchmarks set by the U.S. regarding aid to Gaza by Nov. 13; Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote a letter to senior Israeli officials last month warning that Jerusalem had 30 days to comply, or risk losing some U.S. military aid…
Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced plans for a bill, the DETERRENCE Act, which would impose new penalties, including minimum sentences, for criminals who act at the behest of foreign governments such as Iran…
Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) introduced a resolution condemning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for “issuing destabilizing statements following the attacks on the State of Israel on October 7, 2023, endangering the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s mission, threatening the territorial integrity of neighboring countries, supporting terrorism, and fostering antisemitic behavior around the globe”…
A bipartisan group of senators is urging the president of the governing body that oversees the International Criminal Court to investigate sexual misconduct allegations against Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, and the timing of his pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
Marc Benioff is in talks with Antenna Group to sell Time, which he acquired in 2018 for $190 million…
Washington Post columnist Hugh Hewitt is departing the paper after seven years; last week, Hewitt got into a heated debate with fellow Post columnists Ruth Marcus and Jonathan Capehart in a conversation over election integrity…
Journalist Ben Jacobs reflects on the decision by his former boss, former Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief John Avlon, to leave journalism and make a bid for Congress…
Yale announced plans to adopt a policy of institutional neutrality…
The New York Times interviews New York state legislator Harvey Epstein, who unknowingly was the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that poked fun at the New York City Council candidate’s name for being a portmanteau of two convicted sex offenders: Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein…
The Atlantic’s Gal Beckerman reviews “A Real Pain,” a new film starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as cousins who travel to Poland, where their recently deceased grandmother survived the Holocaust…
The New York Times spotlights Israeli activist Hen Mazzig, who in recent years has begun to work with celebrities, including Debra Messing and Emmanuelle Chriqui, who want to engage in pro-Israel activism…
Germany ordered the closure of the three Iranian consulates in the country, following the execution last week of a German-Iranian man whom Tehran kidnapped from the UAE and charged with espionage…
A Holocaust museum in Thessaloniki, Greece, is slated to open in 2026 at the site of the former train station where tens of thousands of the city’s Jewish residents — the vast majority of the Thessaloniki’s Jewish community — were deported and killed during WWII…
A senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrested, along with several others, over an intelligence leak in which information about hostage negotiations was passed to the German publication Bild…
The Israeli Foreign Ministry officially notified the United Nations of the cancellation of its agreement with UNRWA following last week’s Knesset votes to ban the organization from operating in Israel…
Eleven Israelis in the Arab-Israeli city of Tira were injured by shrapnel from rockets fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon…
American Airlines announced its suspension of flights to and from Israel will continue through September 2025; the airline had previously suspended flights through March 2025…
Israel said it seized a Syrian citizen with ties to Iranian networks, in a rare acknowledgement of a ground operation in Syria…
Iran is privately warning Arab leaders of a “strong and complex” response to Israel’s strikes on military and aerial defense targets in the Islamic Republic last month…
An Oslo-based human rights group said that Iran executed a Jewish Iranian man who had been convicted of murder after the victim’s family, reportedly under pressure from senior Iranian officials, refused a settlement that would have prevented the execution of Arvin Nathaniel Ghahremani…
The State Department confirmed that an Iranian American journalist who had previously worked for a media outlet under the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been held in Iran for months…
The Washington Post looks at the reticence of Arab states to denounce the Houthis as the Iran-backed militia escalates its attacks on U.S. interests and allies in the region…
Writer and analyst Richard Fineberg, who fought against the Alaska pipeline, died at 83…
Actor Alan Rachins, known for his characters in “Dharma and Greg” and “L.A. Law,” died at 82…
Dr. Richard Cash, whose research on dehydration saved millions of people from cholera, dysentery and other diseases, died at 83…
Pic of the Day
More than 150 runners in the New York City Marathon yesterday dedicated their races to the hostages in Gaza by wearing shirts bearing the faces of hostages Naama Levy, Doron Steinbrecher, Evyatar David, Ohad Yahalomi and Edan Alexander — themselves accomplished athletes who had previously completed marathons and triathlons. Near the finish line at Columbus Circle, the NY Hostages Families Forum and supporters rallied behind the participants while waving Israeli flags adorned with yellow ribbons.
Birthdays
Israeli professional stock car racing driver, he is the first Israeli to compete in one of NASCAR’s top three touring series, Alon Day turns 33…
Professor emeritus of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, Daniel Sperber turns 84… Vice-chairman emeritus of AllianceBernstein, he is a former chairman of the Tikvah Fund, Roger Hertog turns 83… Political scientist who has published works on grand strategy, military history and international relations, Edward Luttwak turns 82… Member of Congress and chair of the House Budget Committee until 2023, he was Kentucky’s first Jewish congressman, John Yarmuth turns 77… Former chief of the general staff of the IDF, then minister of defense and member of Knesset for Kadima, Shaul Mofaz turns 76… Uruguayan biologist, he served as mayor of Montevideo and then as a national cabinet minister, Ricardo Ehrlich turns 76… Professor of medicine at England’s University of Birmingham and a leading British authority on organ donation and transplantation, James Max Neuberger turns 75… Board member of Jewish Funders Network and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, Dorothy Tananbaum… Marketing and communications consultant focused on Israel advocacy and the Jewish community, Robert L. Kern… Professor at UCSF and winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine, David Jay Julius turns 69… U.K. politician who served as a Conservative party MP and cabinet minister, he was chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel, Baron Richard Irwin Harrington turns 67… Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 2013, Kenneth I. Gordon turns 65… Former president and CEO of the Hudson Institute where he is now the Japan chair, Kenneth R. “Ken” Weinstein turns 63… Author of five books, comedic actress and television host, Annabelle Gurwitch turns 63… Professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, Claire Elise Katz turns 60… CEO and Chairman of RXR Realty, he also serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Board of Directors, Scott Rechler turns 57… Israeli screenwriter and film director, Eran Kolirin turns 51… Partner at Paragon Strategic Insights, Jeremy Chwat… Co-founder of Semafor, Benjamin Eli “Ben” Smith turns 48… MLB pitcher who appeared in 506 games over his nine-year career, John William Grabow turns 46… Global head of strategic communications at McKinsey & Company, Max Gleischman… Opinion columnist at the Washington Post, she is also a commentator for CNN and a correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour,” Catherine Chelsea Rampell turns 40… Heavily favored to be elected to Congress tomorrow from New Hampshire’s 2nd congressional district, Maggie Goodlander turns 38… Founder and CEO at Denver-based Fresh Tape Media, Jared Kleinstein… Founder and CEO of a health organization working for early detection and prevention of cancer, Yael Cohen Braun turns 38… Acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Addar Weintraub Levi… Senior coordinator for management at the Office of Management and Budget, she is a White House nominee as a CFTC commissioner, Julie Brinn Siegel turns 37… Former White House special representative for international negotiations, Avrahm (“Avi”) Berkowitz… Recording artist, songwriter and entertainer known as Yoni Z, Yoni Zigelboum turns 33… Founding editor of Healthcare Brew, Amanda E. Eisenberg… Bob Rubin…
Recent Daily Kickoff Newsletters
